masked

#4

For the rest of the week, I hardly encountered Simon and it was weirdly frustrating. It's not like a missed his presence, more like it was slightly fuller without him being there. The classes seemed to drag on more than usual so I often tuned out on what Miss Winters was saying.

Whenever I drifted into a daydream, it was always a tall, fair-skinned boy with piercing blue eyes and tousled hair. He was so effortlessly attractive whether he knew it or not, something I didn't want to admit but it was clear.

I found myself wondering if he had a girlfriend and I voiced my question to Kayleigh at lunch, trying to be casual.

"Simon Minter having a girlfriend? More chance of snow in London than that ever happening." She laughed sarcastically. I just smiled and changed the subject hurriedly but Tobi was still looking at me strangely.

Crap, now he was suspicious.

Sure enough, he caught up with me when I was walking to my next lesson.

"Willow, you should really forget about Simon, he would ruin a sweet girl like you." Tobi said, looking at me earnestly, like there was something left unsaid about Simon.

I smiled a little, he was so protective over me and I was grateful but I had to lie to him.

"Don't worry, I couldn't care less about him." I laughed carelessly and placed my hands on Tobi's shoulders to face him. "I'll stay away from him,okay?" I said reassuringly even though there was a weird feeling in my stomach. He nodded and looked pleased at my promise as we walked to science together.

I had been doing my project with Josh and we shared a mutual partnership. Conversation was never more than a few words so I was very surprised when he actually spoke to me today.

"You hang around with that Tobi kid right?" He said hesitantly. My eyes widened in surprised as I looked up.

"Yeah, we're good friends." I replied slowly, frowning at his question.

Josh leaned in a little closer to me and opened his mouth to say something to me when suddenly the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted us. Looking up, the last person I would expect to be standing there was Simon.

"Joshua, what are you doing?" He hissed, placing his elbows on the table so Josh and I were forced apart.

"Nothing." Josh replied smoothly. "Let's skip class, I'm bored."

"Excellent idea." He smiled, pleased with the answer.

I didn't exactly know where to look, I risked a quick glance up at Simon's face.

"Something wrong?" He said slowly, his mouth set into a permanent smirk. He scowled and when I didn't reply, they walked off, Simon making sure to accidentally knock all of my books to the floor.

It was my turn to shoot him a dirty look, he smirked and I know I was supposed to be annoyed at what had just happened but- holy shit- the way one side of his lips curled upwards in that small smile made my heart flutter.

Then his eyes went dark again and that small connection we had just shared, burned out. Well fuck you too, Simon.

-

"So are you coming?" Vik asked eagerly.

I paused, considering. Parties had never really been my kind of crowd as I wasn't exactly outgoing. Sure, all my friends were going but the thought of having to socialise with different people made my brain go numb with fear.

"Please Willow? It's going to be fun." Kayleigh pleaded.

"Okay, fine." I groaned,rolling my eyes.

Kayleigh cheered and then steered me towards our room to cake my face in makeup. It felt totally alien on my face but I figured I might aswell hide behind a mask instead of stay being my awkward- clumsy self.

An hour later, I was dressed in a short black dress and my face had been contoured,powdered and basically drenched in make-up. I did not look myself at all.

"Willow, you look amazing-" Tobi nodded appreciatively "-if any boys give you any trouble just call me okay?"

I laughed and agreed,giving him a hug. There was only one boy I'd want attention from but I kinda guessed parties weren't exactly his thing either.

Sighing, I linked arms with Tobi and we walked to the party together.

-

It was just as I envisioned it to be. Cheap alcohol, excruciatingly loud music and many sweaty teenagers. I'd lost all my friends in the crowd so I was sat by myself, it was slightly pathetic.

"Hey,you're the new girl right?"

I looked to my left to see a tall boy with a long fringe covering his face.

"Yep, that's me and who are you?"
I was not in the mood for a typical dreamy boy that had sparkly brown eyes and a cute smile.

"I'm Colby, why are you sat by yourself?" He looked genuinely concerned so I gave in.

"Honestly, I don't really want to be here but my friends sort of dragged me along." I admitted,thinking longingly of my safe dorm room back at the school.

"I was actually going to head back now, want a ride?" Colby smiled.

"You're not an axe murderer,are you?" I joked and took his offered hand.

"We'll see." He winked at me and then laughed as we walked to his car together. A gleaming Mercedes, so he was incredibly rich as well as that pretty face.

I snorted "So where's the chauffeur?"

"Very sarcastic, aren't we?" Colby said,opening the door for me as I climbed in carefully. We drove mostly in silence except for the occasional attempt at small talk he made.

"Well thank you dearly for the ride and goodnight Colby." I smiled, starting to put my key in the lock when I felt arms wrap around my waist.

"Goodnight Willow." He whispered and kissed my cheek, then he strolled off without looking back. I was really shocked at the intimate gesture but I figured he was slightly drunk so I shrugged it off.

Going into my room, I gladly kicked my borrowed heels off and took my hair down from the tight hairstyle Kayleigh had created. Shaking my curls out,I felt relieved to be back in the calming and serene atmosphere of the school.

I hummed a little as I opened my beloved Stephen King book and settled on my chair to read. Soon I was deeply drawn into the book and didn't realise the time was almost 3am.

"Fuck." I muttered, even thought it was a Saturday, late nights didn't exactly favour my mood and appearance the next morning. I also needed to remove all this make-up that was plastered to my face.

Just as I walked into my small bathroom I heard a squeaky, scraping sound that I couldn't put a name to. It was loud and clearly coming from my room. I shivered a little in fear, the sound dragged on for a little longer and I felt a gust of wind rush through the room,

What the fuck?

cliffhangers are the actual shit,
bad-boy simon is so hot i s2g
merry xmas eve eve guys!
-mia